Electricity conductor unit



Jan 4, 1949. J QBRIEN 2,457,831

ELECTRICITY CONDUCTOR UNIT Filed June 9, 1945 V J [i n 1 ['LINVENTOR.

I J seph F OBrien BY ATTORNEY Patented Jan. 4, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,457,881 ELECTRICITY connncron "UNIT Application June 9, 1943, Serial No. 490,146

.1 Claim.

This invention relates to electricity conductor units and particularly to electricity conductor units in which relatively low conductivity material is employed in parallel circuit within said unit to increase the current-carrying capacity to the equivalency of copper or other standard conductor material.

It is an object of the invention to provide an electricity conductor unit having a plurality of, preferably three, electricity conductors therein, two of said conductors containing iron to effect savings in critical material such as copper.

It is an object of the invention to provide means whereby electricity conductors within a wiring unit may be connected in parallel elecconductors a current-carrying capacity equivalent to that of the copper, there is employed a removable jumper or bridge of Phosphor bronze or similar stifily resilient material of good conductive quality to bridge the two steel conductors. Said jumper is formed or otherwise provided with means to tightly engage the conductors and to extend from one to the other while maintaining adequate air-gap insulation with respect to the third conductor.

By providing spring arms or extensions on the bridge member suitably proportioned with respect to the inner dimensions of the hollow body of the unit whereby said arms are compressed upon insertion of the bridge member into the hollow body, the engagement of the bridge member with respect to the conductors is attained.

An advantage afforded by the invention is that a hollow body having interiorly disposed grooves, say, three in number, of a dimension for stably receiving and retaining conductors of copper in a three-leg circuit, may be employed without alteration, pursuant to the invention, with two conductors of steel combined with a conductor of copper in a two-leg circuit.

Other features of the invention will be ap- 2 parent from the following detailed description o! the specific embodiments illustrated in the drawing.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a portion of an electric wiring system comprising a feed section and seriatim interconnected conductor sections;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the feed section with a cover plate removed to illustrate the manner of making an electrical connection with the power source;

Fig.3 is an underside view of the feed section;

Fig. 4 is an underside view of one of the conductor units of Fig. i with part of the closure plate broken away to disclose the conductor arrangement therein, pursuant to the invention;

Fig. 5 is a section taken on 5-5 of Fig. 4;

'Fig. 6 is an end elevation of a preferred form of bridge or jumper employed in carrying out my invention;

Fig. 7 is a section taken on lines 7-I of Fig.4; and

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the bridge or jumper of Fig. 6.

Referring to the drawings, a portion of an electric wiring system of seriatim type is fragmentari-ly illustrated in Fig. 1, and includes a feed section 10 and therewith interconnected sections H, l2; the unit 2 is shown provided withoutle-t facilities as later described.

The section 12, fully illustrated in Figs. '4, 5 and 7., is illustratively a three-sided hollow body member M, preferably molded from phenol condensate materials, and provided with a suitable base-plate l5 which forms a closure therefor. Said body member is shown having a plurality of transversely extending walls 16 in which grooves or similar recesses removably receive and support in insulated spaced relationship a plurality of electricity conductors I1, I B and I9; base-plate l5 has longitudinal grooves cooperat ing with said transverse walls to confine the electricity conductors.

Said electricity conductor unit may be of the type disclosed and claimed in my presently copending application Serial No. 398,030, filed June 14, 1941, now U. S, Patent No. 2,351,631, granted June 20, 1944, entitled Electricity conductor unit.

In the conductor unit shown in Fig. 4, the transverse walls I6 are so spaced as to provide pockets beneath outlet apertures 20 to permit the passage of the blades of an electrical attachment plug. Electrically connected to the conductors are pairs of spring contacts 2| which register with the outlet apertures for electrical connection with the attachment plug when the blades thereof are inserted through the apertures 20, as is indicated generally in Fig. 4.

The outward conductors ll, l8 are preferably iron rods cadmium plated, and the central conductor I9 may be a solid or tubular copper conductor.

It is well-known that copper is greatly superior in current-carrying capacity than iron, and the present invention provides for advantageously utilizing two iron conductors combinedly in lieu of copper for one leg of the circuit. By joining the two iron conductors into a parallel circuit, the conductivity of the iron conductors may be arranged to equal or exceed, as desired, the conductivity of the copper conductor.

The connection of the iron conductors ll, H in parallel is accomplished by a bridge or jumper 22, preferably of Phosphor bronze or equivalent, said bridge or jumper having its end portions 23 bent to provide substantially circular passages 24 through which the conductors extend, see Fig. 7. The bridge or jumper 22 when relaxed assumes a greater transverse dimension across the ends thereof than the internal width of the housing l4; thereby requiring the ends 23 of said jumper to be squeezed toward each other before it can be inserted and positioned into the housing. Such compression is effective to hold the jumper and its associated conductors securely within the housing, and to wrap or embrace tightly about the conductors, thus attaining good electrical connection therewith.

It will be noted from Fig. 4 that the outlet contacts 2| are so connected that the central copper conductor is common to the two pairs of contacts 2| in a single unit, whereas the second contact of the respective pairs is connected to but one or the other of the iron conductors.

To insure that the electrical balance of the wiring system will not be disturbed by the inadvertant use of the copper conductor and but one of the iron conductors, in the circumstance that outlet plugs are inserted through the corresponding outlet, i. e., plug-blade apertures, in a succession of outlet-provided units, a jumper 22 is employed in each outlet-provided unit.

The non-outletprovided units, H, of the wiring system are similarly equipped with the single copper conductor and the two steel conductors, and need not be equipped with the jumper 22 because the parallel connection of the iron conductors is established either by the corresponding conductors of the feed section of an immediately succeeding or preceding jumperprovided outlet section.

In Fig. 1, the first unit, H, of the wiring system is non-outlet-provided, and the iron conductors thereof are connected in parallel elec trical circuit from the feed section In, in which section the three electricity conductors I1, l9 and I8 are respectively connected to the iron, copper, and iron conductors of the unit II. The respective conductors of the feed unit ID are attached to connector plates 30, 3i and 32, see Fig. 3, which have connection facilities accessible from the front of the feed unit, see Fig. 2. By electrically connecting the plates 30 and 31 together by means of bus 33, see Fig. 2, a feed conductor 34 connected to said bus 33 places the conductors ll, l8 into parallel relationship; Fig. 2 shows the second wire 35 of a two wire circuit connected with the plate 32 and thus with the conductor l9.

If the first unit of the wiring system adjacent the feed unit In were an outlet-provided unit l2, the interconnection of the conductors ll, l8 of the feed unit would render it unnecessary to apply the jumper 22 to such outlet-provided unit.

The respective units are electrically connected by insertion of the plain ends of the conductors of one unit into the cylindrical sleeves provided at the ends of the adjacent unit, said cylindrical sleeves being so sized that they will snugly receive the ends of the conductors of an adjacent unit to efiect adequate electrical connection. The complete plating of the iron conductors with cadmium or the like protects the iron conductors against corrosion at the ends. Cadmium is a prefered coating material for the reason that it has a lubricating quality which facilitates the insertion of the conductors into the sleeves of the adjacent unit.

Whereas I have described my invention by reference to specific forms thereof, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made provided they do not depart from the scope of the claim.

I claim:

An electrical conductor unit of a seriatim system of conductor units, comprising a preiormed raceway housing of insulating material provided with three conductor-carrying channels; three electrical conductors fitting within the respective conductor-carrying channels, two of said conductors being of ferrous metal and one being of copper; a jumper disposed within said housing and electrically connecting the said two ferrous conductors in parallel; and a pair of outlet terminals serving a pair of plug-insert openings of said housing, one of said terminals being electrically connected to one of the said ferrous conductors, and the other of said terminals being electrically connected to the said copper con ductor.

JOSEPH F. OBRIEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,179,872 Stromquist Apr. 18, 1916 1,686,842 Bullivant Oct. 9, 1928 2,218,545 Morten Oct. 22, 1940 2,291,623 Hanson et a1 Aug. 4, 1942 2,299,787 Beal Oct. 27, 1942 2,313,452 OBrien Mar. 9, 1943 2,313,960 OBiien Mar. 16, 1943 2 351,631 O'Brien June 30, 1944 2,359,090 Dyer, Jr Sept. 26, 1944 

